US sending officials to Syria: PLEASE don't just try to isolate Iran

The US is sending two high level officials - apparently one from State and one from White House - to Syria. Here is the NYTimes piece from this morning. (I love how they have a picture of Shimon Peres kissing Clinton before the article. Maybe this is an attempt to say Hillary bringing Syria and Israel together, but I think it would have been better to have a pic of her handshake with the Syrian Foreign Minister from the other day...)

There was a very interesting talk on Syria last night on On Point on NPR. (3/3/09, On Point with Tim Ashbrook, NPR DC 88.5) What does Syria want? Golan Heights and a little respect...oh and a Palestinian state. What does the US admin probably want? To isolate Iran, and for Syria to stop meddling in Lebanon, and supporting Hezbollah and Hamas.

Careful, said foremost Syria expert Jon Landis last night (again - 3/3/09, On Point with Tim Ashbrook, NPR DC 88.5), in merely talking to Syria with the hope of isolating Iran (just approaching Syria in terms of US interests) because that will only create more animosities and suspicions in the region which will not serve US interests in the long term. (We cannot simply play countries in the ME off one another - as Condi Rice et al did in trying to isolate Iran through emphasizing this Sunni Shii divide. (Horrible, horrible idea.)

Landis also has a great article - "Why Syria Will Not Get Golan Back" - next week he will argue the opposite.

US policy is always so shortsighted - we must think bigger and longer. We must realize that what is in the best interests of each country in the ME region (return of Golan) is also in our interests.

Isolating countries and organizations - Sudan, Hamas, etc - like we are currently dealing with Iran never works, engagement does.